Method and apparatus for producing a decorative effect on stainless steel and other surfaces



Feb. 28, 1967 L. DUNCAN 3,305,916

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A DECORATIVE EFFECT ON STAINLESS STEEL AND OTHER SURFACES Filed July 2, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR LEON L. DUNCAN BY g m ATTORNEYS Feb. 28, 1967 DUNCAN 3,305,916

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A DECORATIVE EFFECT ON STAINLESS STEEL AND OTHER SURFACES Filed July 2, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR LEON L. DUNCAN BY m, 71%

ORNEYS Feb. 28, 1967 L. L. DUNCAN 3,305,916

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A DECORATIVE EFFECT 0N STAINLESS STEEL AND OTHER SURFACES Filed July 2, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 TREATING MATERIAL c, APPLICATION MATERIAL SEPARATOR.

CONTROL sou RCE INVENTOR LEON L. DUNCAN United States Patent 3,305,916 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A DECORATIVE EFFECT ON STAINLESS STEEL AND OTHER SURFACES Leon L. Duncan, Washington, Mo. 63090 Filed July 2, 1964, Ser. No. 380,001 14 Claims. (CI. 29-90) This application is a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 332,230, filed December 20, 1963.

This invention relates to process and apparatus for producing a peened finish on selective areas of stainless steel and more particularly to a method and apparatus of peening selective portions of a surface such as bright annealed stainless steel with microscopic glass beads to produce microscopically peened surfaces in selective predetermined shapes and configurations.

At the present time, stainless steel and other metallic surfaces are frequently used for counters, walls, and other structural surfaces which present substantial surface areas. It is often desirable to ornament or imprint these areas in order to improve their appearance, for identification purposes, and to reduce reflection glare and the like. Ideally, such finishing should not change the strength and corrosion characteristics of the metal, and also should not constitute such an expense whereby the selling prices of the metallic sheets involved have to be raised substantially in view of the cost of the finishing process. However, with present general practices, surfaces are frequently finished by abrasive means which remove a portion of the metal and at the same time increase the selling price of the metal appreciably. For example, stainless steel surfaces with decorative effects produced "by present methods often have a selling price which is more than one half again as great as similar articles without such decorative effect. In contrast, if the stainless steel is treated in accordance with the method of this invention, pleasing finishing effects may be produced 'on stainless steel without significantly increasing the price to the user. At the same time, little or no material is removed from the surface of the stainless steel and, as

a matter of fact, such surface is somewhat strengthened by the peening effect insofar as the treated portion of the surface is involved.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method which produces a decorative finish on bright, annealed stainless steel and other surfaces which is inexpensive, effective, and which does not remove metal from the surface so treated.

A further object of this invention is to produce such a decorative effect by the incorporation of a nozzle corresponding to the configuration desired and the placing of such nozzle together with means to direct a fluid stream at the surface to be treated a small distance over such surface whereupon treating material is introduced into such fluid stream and impinges upon the surface through said nozzle, the configuration of the nozzle being, in effect, printed on the surface to be decorated.

It is a still further object of this invention to carry out such process by means of a device for directing the peening material on the surface involved, said device including the nozzle having the desired configuration and further means being provided to maintain said nozzle a selected distance from said surface during the treating operation.

A yet further object of this invention is to include in combination with the foregoing method and apparatus a further method and apparatus for the recovery and re-use of expended treating material.

Another object of the invention is to provide such apparatus in combination with other apparatus to produce a line of peened finish on a surface, whereby the line is produced by moving said surface relative to said apparatus.

An additional object of the invention is the utilization with the apparatus and method of the invention of a yieldable material as a stencil means on the surface involved whereby a fluid stream together with treating material impinges upon exposed portions of the surface through the stencil means to produce a peened effect thereon while at the same time the yieldable material which is also impacted by a certain amount of said treating material is substantially unaffected thereby.

Other objects, adaptabilities, and capacities will appear as the description progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a glass bead gun in partial section with the upper portion of the gun partly broken away;

FIGURE 2 is a bottom view of the base of the apparatus shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a modified embodiment of the glass bead machine in accordance with the invention in partial section;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of the spacer member which is used in combination with the gun shown in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of a ceramic nozzle of the type shown in cross section in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a modified ceramic nozzle which may also be utilized with the gun illustrated in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 7 is a cross section on lines VIIVII of FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 8 shows a perspective view of a stencil member which may be used in combination with the gun shown in FIGURE 3 in the place of the spacer member of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 9 is a schematic drawing illustrating a method and apparatus in accordance with the invention for producing peened lines on a relatively moving metallic surface in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 10 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIGURE 9 with the casing removed.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, a peening gun 260 has a conduit 261 in its upper part which leads to a source of fluid under pressure such as compressed air, and a conduit 262, from a treating material source such as microscopic glass beads, leading into a handle portion 264 to the interior of the gun wherein it is united with the conduit 261 so that treating material may be entrained or fed into the fluid stream in the conduit 261. A fluid stop valve 265 and a material stop valve 266 are hingedly received in the conduits 261 and 262, respectively, and are, by levers 267 and 268 afiixed to their hinges extending outside of said conduits, operated to open and shut through a cable 270 which is turnable about a pulley 271 affixed to the inside of the gun 260 and attaches at its lower end to an extension 272 of trigger 274 which pivots about an axle 275 carried by the gun 260. A helical tension spring 263 connected to the upper end of lever 267 on one end and to the housing of gun 260 on the other tends to keepthe trigger 274 in its downward aspect. Also, spring 263 tends to urge the valves 265 and 266 into a closed position. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that .by pulling the trigger 274 upward, the valves 265 and 266 are opened to admit a fluid under pressure and treating material to the lower portion of the conduit 261. The fluid together with the treating material passes through a nozzle portion 277 in the lower portion of the gun 260 and onto the surface 280 to be treated. Threadably received on the lower nozzle portion of the gun 260 is a bushing member 281. Such bushing member has 011 its lower portions a pair of parallel slots 282 and 284,

Patented Feb. 28, 1967 said slots receiving a pair of plastic strips 285 and 286. Such plastic strips are made of a type of material which is yield-able such as is manufactured with certain types of tetrafluoroethylene resins. be affixed in place by a set screw 287 which is threadably l received in the bushing member 281. Strip 286 is simif larly held in place by a set screw 288 threadably received over slot 284 in the bushing member 281.

The plastic strip 285 can When the gun 260 "is moved over the surface 280 in a direction parallel to the strips 285 and 286, a strip of I treated surface equal to the distance between the strips 1 285 and 286 is produced on the surface 280. Whereas the treating material, glass beads, produces a peening 1 effect on the surface 280 between the strips 285 and 286, such glass beads as may be carried by the stream through conduit 261 against the strips 285 and 286 have no signifi- I cant effect upon such strips since the latter are yieldable and, accordingly, the glass beads merely bounce off them with the material itself being only momentarily indented for each impact involved. Because of this quality, the strips 285 and 286 are long-wearing and distinct, straight demarcation lines are produced by the moving of the gun 260 relative to the surface 280.

The modified gun 290, as shown in FIGURE 3, is

. identical to the gun 260, except that a somewhat different i bushing member 291 is used to retain a ceramic nozzle 292 in place.

nozzle 292 has a circular cross section. A projection 294 As will be noted from FIGURE 5, the

on the interior of the bushing 291 matches with an indentation 295 on the nozzle 292 whereby the relative position of the nozzle 292 together with the bushing 291 can be maintained. The nozzle 292 is maintained a short distance above the surface 296, the preferred distance for same being approximately one-eighth of an inch, by a spacing member 297. The spacing member 297 is maintained in a spaced relationship from the bushing 291 by a plurality of screws 300 which are received in threaded bores 301 in the bushing 291. A nut 302 is provided on each screw 300 in order to insure a rigid connection between the spacing member 297 and the bushing 291.

It will be appreciated that when the peening gun 290 is placed in the position as shown in FIGURE 3 with the spacing member 297 flush with surface 296 and the gun is operated to propel a fluid stream with treating material against the surface 296, a circular peened area is produced. When the distance between the end of the nozzle 292 and the surface 296 is approximately one-eighth of an inch, the peened area is clearly delineated from the surrounding area which has not been so treated, with a minimal fuzziness or shading around the edges. Unless a considerable shaded or fuzzy area is desired, the distance between the end of nozzle 292 and surface 296 should be maintained within limits of approximately .04 to .4 inch.

A nozzle 304, such as shown in FIGURE 6, is identical to nozzle 292 except that the throat 305 has a distinctive cross-sectional configuration, for example, a star in this case. .It'will, however, be noted from FIGURE 7 that the cross section varies and, in point of fact, is circular in the upper portion of the nozzle whereupon it tapers to the five-point star shape towards the bottom of the nozzle. The nozzle 304 used in the place of nozzle 294, as shown in FIGURE 3, permits the operator to produce a peened area in the shape of a star on the surface 296. Again, where the end of the nozzle 304 is approximately one-eighth of an inch from the surface of 296, a distinct star peened area will be produced on the surface 296, the demarcation of the peened area being quite distinct with only a minimal amount of fuzziness about the edges. Instead of an equal-sided polygon such as the five-pointed star, the nozzle may taper to the configuration of a letter, number or the like. Cones may be suspended near the opening to produce, for example, an O.

In the event that it is desired to eliminate entirely such minimal fuzzy area wherein the peened area fades into the unpeened surface-and which is frequently a desirable effect-the spacing member 297 may be replaced with a spacing member 306 which has a star configuration 307 cut out of the center whereupon it acts as a stencil. The spacing member 307 is made of a yielding and resilient type of material such as may be made from tetrachloroethylene resin plastics or other suitable material. The screws 300 together with the nuts 302 are identical to those shown in FIGURE 4, and accordingly have been assigned the same reference numerals. Also, it will be understood that such screws 300 are receivable in the bushing member 291 in the same manner as the screws 300 in the bushing member 297.

Since neither the guns 260, as shown in FIGURE 1, or 290, as shown in FIGURE 3, incorporate a scavenging means for the treating material, it is desirable that other means not shown be provided to scavenge the treating material. Such means may comprise a manual automatic sweeping or a vacuum pick-up system. It will be appre ciated that the latter may be either separate or incorporated in the gun itself.

Referring now to FIGURES 9 and 10, an apparatus is shown where a gang of treating guns 310 are secured within a casing 311 which is disposed over an endless member consisting of a belt 312 which is supported and moved by a plurality of rollers 314 carried by a frame 315. Each of the guns 310 are identical to the gun 260 except that the handle portion 264 has been eliminated and a solenoid 316 is provided on each gun 310 to actuate the trigger 274. The gang of treating guns 310 may be secured relative to the frames 315 and to each other by any of a number of methods which would occur to one skilled in the art. For example, a pair of bars 317 can be afiixed between opposite sides of the casing 311. A sheet of material 320 may be introduced on the belt 312 under the casing 311 and the gang of treating guns 310 by commencing a movement of the belt 312 in the direction as shown by arrow 321. Such movement of the belt 312 may be accomplished by any one of a number of means such as a motor 322 which is operatively connected by pulley means 324 to the after roller 314.

A hopper 325 is secured to the frame 315 adjacent to the path of the sheet of material 320. A conveyor (not shown) is disposed in the lower portion 326 of the hopper 325 to convey material to a separator, as shown in FIGURE 9. Disposed over the sheet of material 320 in the after portion of the casing 311 is a sweeping member 327 which comprises two echelons of rotating brushes 330 and 331. The rotary brushes in echelon 330 and 331 are journaled on a bar 332 which is affixed to either side of the casing 311 and extends diagonally across the path of the sheet of material 320.

In operation, the motor 322 is actuated to cause the belt 312 to move in a direction as shown by arrow 321 and a sheet of material 320 is placed on the belt. When the sheet of material 320 comes under the gang of treating guns 310, the solenoids 316 are actuated by the treating material application control and, accordingly, pressurized air and treating material is directed against the surface of the material 320. As sheet 320 is carried along on the belt 312, clear lines of demarcation 334 and 335 are left where the treating material has impacted between the plastic strips 285 and 286. Also, spent treating material 336 will tend to collect over and aboutthe lines 334 and 335. However, when such treating material meets the forward echelon of rotary brushes 330, such brushes which are individually rotated by the movement of the sheet 320 in a counterclockwise direction, as seen from FIGURE 9, move the treating material into the hopper 325. Material which is missed by the first echelon of rotary brushes 330 is picked up by the after echelon of rotary brushes 331 and in the same way is moved to the hopper 325. The conveying means located in the lower portion 326 of the hopper then convey the spent treating material to a separator where any dust or other unwanted material which may have collected with the treating material is separated. From the separator, the treating material is conveyed to the treating material source. When the sheet of material 320 ceases to pass under the gang of treating guns 310, the solenoids 316, through the treating material application control, release the triggers 274 and accordingly the guns are shut off. The movement of the sheet of material 320, however, continues on past the sweeping member 327 and when finally taken from the casing 311 has the impacted treating lines 334 and 335 imprinted on it. The preferred treating material comprises microscopic glass beads which, in elfect, peen the material when they strike its surface-such surface usually being a shiny metallic surface such as is found on bright annealed stainless steel.

It will be appreciated that any convenient type of sweeping means 327 may be employed such as, for example, a jet of air, a single brush carrier, a vacuum pickup or the like, as would occur to one skilled in the art. While only two individual guns have been shown in the gang of guns 310, it will be understood that any number of such guns depending upon the size of the apparatus may be utilized if desired and it is not necessary that the individual guns be disposed in a line as shown in FIGURE 10. The treating material application control has been shown diagrammatically and those skilled in the electrical arts will readily appreciate that this may be actuated automatically by a switch responsive to the sheet of material 320 coming under the particular gun involved. It will also be appreciated that the strips 285 and 286 may be varied in width and that by running a correct size of material through the apparatus a second time at right angles to its direction going through the first time, a rectangular, squared, or plaid effect may be imprinted on the material involved.

The foregoing detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding only, and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom for modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A method of producing a peened finish on a predetermined area of a surface which comprises the steps of conducting a stream of fluid at said surface, inrtoducing microscopic substantially spherical glass bodies into said fluid, controlling the cross section of said fluid stream to approximately 0.04-O.4 inch from said surface, said bodies colliding with said surface and producing microscopic indentations thereon in a configuration substantially conforming to the aforesaid controlled cross section of said fluid stream and permitting said bodies to escape substantially laterally of said fluid stream.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said surface is a surface of bright annealed stainless steel.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said surface is moved relative to said fluid stream and said glass bodies.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3 wherein said bodies are swept from said surface after having collided therewith and collected for re-use.

5. Apparatus for producing a decorative effect on bright annealed stainless steel and like surfaces, which comprises a hollow housing, means for admitting a stream of fluid under pressure at the upper aspect of said housing, said housing having nozzle means at its lower aspect, spacing means connected to said nozzle means for engaging said surface and positioning said nozzle means in spaced relationship to said surface, said spacer means including stencil means composed of yieldable resilient material, and a passageway included within said housing for admitting treating material within said housing into said stream of fluid.

6. Apparatus for producing a decorative effect on bright annealed stainless steel and like surfaces which comprises a conduit for admitting a stream of fluid under pressure, a further conduit for admitting treating material to said fluid stream, nozzle means connected at the lower extremity of said first-mentioned conduit means, said nozzle means having a predetermined cross section, spacer means connected with said nozzle means, said spacer means comprising a substantially flat member for contacting said surface, and spacing the tip of said nozzle means about one eighth of an inch from said surface whereby expended treating material is permitted to escape from bet-ween said nozzle tip and said surface.

7. Apparatus for producing a decorative effect on a surface such as bright annealed stainless steel which comprises a first conduit means for constraining a fluid stream directed at said surface, a second conduit means for admitting treating material into said first conduit, a nozzle connected to the discharge end of said first conduit means, said nozzle having a predetermined crosssectional configuration in its discharge end, and spacer means extending 0.4 to .4 inch forward of the discharge end of said nozzle, said spacer means comprising a substantially fiat member which defines open spaces between the discharge end of said nozzle and said spacer means, said open spaces being located laterally of said first conduit means.

8. Apparatus in accordance with claim 7 wherein said predetermined cross-sectional configuration is in the form of a circle.

9. Apparatus in accordance with claim 7 wherein said predetermined cross-sectional configuration is in the form of an equal-sided polygon.

10. Apparatus in accordance with claim 7 wherein said predetermined cross-sectional configuration is in the form of a letter.

11. Apparatus in accordance with claim 7 wherein said predetermined cross-sectional configuration is in the form of an Arabic number.

12. Apparatus for producing a decorative effect on a surface such as bright annealed stainless steel which comprises a first conduit means for constraining a fluid stream directed at said surface, a second conduit means for admitting treating material into said first conduit means, a pair of parallel strips composed of yieldable resilient material ext-ending norm-ally with respect to said first conduit means and connected in space-d relationship to the discharge end thereof, said strips being located forwardly and on either side of said discharge end whereby open spaces are defined between said strips and said discharge end, said open spaces being positioned laterally relative to said discharge end.

13. Apparatus in accordance with claim 12, in combination with an endless member carrying a surface to be treated, said strips being disposed parallel to said surface and to its direction of movement on said endless member.

14. A combination in accordance with claim 13, in further combination with removing means encountering treated portions of said surface and removing said treating material therefrom.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,878,624 3/1959 Hastrup 5l-ll 3,222,752 12/1965 Miller 2990 RICHARD H. EANES, JR., Primary Examiner. 

1. A METHOD OF PRODUCING A PEENED FINISH ON A PREDETERMINED AREA OF A SURFACE WHICH COMPRISES THE STEPS OF CONDUCTING A STREAM OF FLUID AT SAID SURFACE, INTRODUCING MICROSCOPIC SUBSTANTIALLY SPHERICAL GLASS BODIES INTO SAID FLUID, CONTROLLING THE CROSS SECTION OF SAID FLUID STREAM TO APPROXIMATELY 0.04-0.4 INCH FROM SAID SURFACE, SAID BODIES COLLIDING WITH SAID SURFACE AND PRODUCING MICROSCOPIC INDENTATIONS THEREON IN A CONFIGURATION SUBSTANTIALLY CONFORMING TO THE AFORESAID CONTROLLED CROSS SECTION OF SAID FLUID STREAM AND PERMITTING SAID BODIES TO ESCAPE SUBSTANTIALLY LATERALLY OF SAID FLUID STREAM. 